Musical Notes

Hello OCBC family,
 “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name!” (Psalm 103:1).

A powerful hymn that we love to sing is “Praise to the Lord, the Almighty”, which is an echo of the Psalm 103.

“Praise to the Lord, the Almighty, the King of creation!
O my soul, praise Him, for He is thy health and salvation!
All ye who hear,
Now to His temple draw near;
Praise Him in glad adoration.”

The author of this hymn was Joachim Neander, born in 1650, and his father, and grandfather, and great-grandfather, and great-great-grandfather, had the same name and all of them were preachers of the gospel. With Joachim, the story was a little different, because, when he was a student, Joachim was wild and rebellious, and religion or a relationship with God was not part of his life. When he was 20, he joined a group of young men to go to a particular church to ridicule the worshipers. But that Sunday, Rev. Theodore Under-Eyck preached the gospel, and Joachim became a Christian, and a few years later, he became an assistant preacher in this same church.

Joachim loved to walk near his home, but these walks were worship walks: praying, meditating in the word of God, and composing hymns of praise and worship. We might say that Joachim was the first hymnwriter from the Calvinist branch of Protestantism.

He battled tuberculosis and was very sick and died when he was 30 years old, and this hymn was the last one that he wrote.

“Praise to the Lord, who o'er all things so wondrously reigneth,
Shelters thee under His wings, yea, so gently sustaineth!
Hast thou not seen
How thy desires e'er have been
Granted in what He ordaineth?”

One thing that we can notice from this hymn is that Joachim wrote this hymn not directly to God but to his own soul, encouraging himself to praise the Lord, the Almighty.

The melody is a German melody from 1665, but Neander altered the melody a little to match with his lyrics. This hymn and its melody became very popular, that even J. S. Bach wrote a cantata using Neander’s hymn.

“Praise to the Lord, O let all that is in me adore Him!
All that hath life and breath, come now with praises before Him.
Let the Amen
Sound from His people again,
Gladly for aye we adore Him.”

“Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord from the heavens; praise him in the heights!” (Psalm 148:1).

In His service,
Israel